Giant falcon: a hunter of hornets and wasps (11 photos)

Here is a hunter of a hunter, one of the most deadly machines of nature. A giant bat! The flying executioner takes aim at wasps and hornets, one bite - and the meal is served!





So, who is the main bastard in the area now?

A giant bat, or killer fly, is a more aggressive and violent insect that you have to look for. Systematically, bats are indeed distant relatives of ordinary flies. But the only things they have in common are two wings and large compound eyes. The mad executioners borrowed everything else from Satan, after whom they were named. This is no joke: the Latin name of the species is Satanas gigas, which translates as "giant Satan".



If it seems to you that the lights of hell are shining in his eyes, you are not imagining it.

Every day of the Ktyrya is a series of brutal fights and deliberate murders. They occur almost all over Eurasia, a wide strip from North Africa to the Mongolian steppes.





He's done it!

The winged Satans hunt the most difficult and diverse prey. The size allows: the giant bat is the largest two-winged insect! This monster is the size of a matchbox - the length of the fly reaches 5 cm. The menacing roar of wings signifies heavenly punishment for all insects in the area.



Because you shouldn't have stuck your long nose into other people's business!

It doesn't matter how well armed the intended victim is and how dangerous she is. The killer fly doesn't care what damage the evil wasps and hornets do. It doesn't care about the strong chitinous armor of cockchafers, ground beetles and rose chafers. It doesn't care about the tenacious legs of praying mantises and spider chelicerae. In its eyes, absolutely any arthropod looks like a snack.



The Ktyr is the best friend you can have in the summer. Not a single wasp will stop you from enjoying a watermelon in its presence!

Want to hide? No way. The Ktyr sees 360°. Their compound eyes are made up of thousands of individual ommatidia - individual "mini-eyes" that transmit mosaic images. Something like individual pixels, from which the brain then assembles the overall picture. The viewing angle with such eyepieces is almost complete. Blurred movement and glare are visible on the periphery, and a clear image of the victim is in the center. There is no way to hide from the two-winged executioner.



The ladybug lost to the giant Satan. The world is cruel and unfair!

Want to run away? No way. Despite its colossal size, the falcon performs aerial maneuvers so skillfully that it catches its prey right in flight. Want to wait out the attack? Stupid idea! The killer fly is in an eternal search for a victim. A couple of minutes of respite after another hunt, and here the falcon is ready to take flight again and bring bloody terror to the inhabitants of the microworld.



When looking at a bat, the main thing to remember is that it is our friend, not our enemy.

If the unfortunate bug has already fallen into the clutches, its fate is sealed. Just two pricks, and the victim goes limp right in the clutches of its killer. With surgical precision, the bat aims at the most vulnerable places: at the joints between the head and the cephalothorax or right in the center of the head - between the eyes.



Seryozha, I asked you not to make hickeys on the neck! Mom will kill me!

With the first injection, the Satan fly immobilizes the prey. It injects poison, which contains many peptide neurotoxins and proteins. The toxin affects the nervous system and causes almost instant paralysis. No matter how strong the praying mantis, spider, hornet are, one dose of poison neutralizes them in seconds. With the next bite, the horsefly injects a portion of saliva with a lethal dose of enzymes into the victim's body. This turns the insides of the caught insect into a nutritious smoothie. All the predator can do is suck out the tasty treat with its proboscis.



How long can we talk about it, your beard is itchy! Shave it already!

By mistake, a horsefly can also attack a person: on the pain scale, a bite from Satan can be compared to a bee's. There will also be inflammation, swelling, and a lot of unpleasant memories. But nothing more - for us, the winged ones are relatively safe, they bite only for self-defense.



Hey, friend, you have a great nail shape! You don't even need to go for a manicure!

What can I say, even love for bloodthirsty flies has a taste of predation. Instead of flowers, the suitor-ktyr presents his beloved with a dead carcass. Now that's what I call romance! Then the female lays from several dozen to several hundred eggs in the ground, under stones, behind bark. The clutch is always located in places where life is in full swing. Young ktyryata quickly dispel the idleness of local inhabitants, spilling rivers of blood.



When you are offended by each other, but still remain inseparable.

The little ones themselves look like ordinary maggots. They do not covet large and strong insects. Instead, the same clumsy comrades come under fire: slugs and larvae. For two or three years, the slugs grab, chop, devour - after which they pupate and continue their bloody patrol not only on the ground, but also in the sky.